International Cooperation & Partnerships

The Department of International Cooperation and Partnerships is responsible for supporting and coordinating the Organization’s relations with its Member States, intergovernmental organizations, civil society and the media. It also provides guidance and support for relations with governmental, multilateral and private sector donors. The Department leads and coordinates IOM’s forum activities, including the IDM, IOM’s support for global and regional consultative processes and preparations for IOM’s annual governing body meetings. It is also responsible for the Organization’s communications and public information functions. One of the Department’s principal functions is to act as a first port of call and a “window” into IOM for external partners, answering inquiries, arranging briefings and generally providing information about the Organization and migration issues and trends in general.

The Department monitors national and international migration policy developments and promotes awareness and understanding of international migration law. It ensures broad and consistent development and dissemination of IOM’s institutional positions on key international migration policy issues and trends, in consultation with other organizational units. The Department is also responsible for keeping IOM staff informed on strategic planning and programme development, as well as coordinating, promoting and disseminating new research and data in particular with respect to emerging issues. These functions include contributions to the international migration discourse, tracking international meetings, determining priorities and ensuring adequate representation.

The Department of International Cooperation and Partnerships is composed of six divisions and two units:

Governing Bodies Division
International Partnerships Division
Media and Communications Division
Donor Relations Division
Migration Policy Research Division
Multilateral Processes Division
International Migration Law Unit
Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC)

The Governing Bodies Division is responsible for preparing and coordinating the sessions of the Council and the Standing Committee on Programmes and Finance, informal consultations and the IDM, including ministerial-level conferences. It is the focal point for information concerning meetings and documents and is responsible for the translation of IOM’s official documents and publications, in the three official languages, or others as requested. Through the IDM and by lending support to other dialogue initiatives, the Division also works to monitor emerging migration-related issues and major trends, to enhance understanding of migration and its impacts, and to strengthen the capacities and cooperative mechanisms of governments and other relevant stakeholders to address migration comprehensively and effectively. For more information, see Governing Bodies; International Dialogue on Migration.

The International Partnerships Division is responsible for monitoring and developing IOM’s partnerships, in particular with intergovernmental organizations, civil society and other multilateral and regional institutions with a view to improving policy coherence and cooperative approaches to migration management. The Division develops and disseminates IOM’s contributions to State-led, regional migration-related processes, supports IOM’s participation in the Regional Consultative Processes (RCPs) as a member, partner, observer or service provider at the request of participating governments, and serves as a global focal point for information on and exchange among the RCPs. It is the focal point for relations with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and organizes consultations to facilitate the identification and sharing of effective policies and practices on a wide range of migration issues. For more information, see Partnerships; Regional Consultative Proc e sses.

The Media and Communications Division enhances knowledge and understanding of IOM as the global migration agency and is the primary reference point for external sources in need of information and views on migration trends and issues. The Division has the institutional responsibility for formulating and implementing an effective public communication strategy that targets both internal and external audiences to raise public awareness about both the Organization and migration issues with a view to helping establish IOM as the reference organization on the subject. It also seeks to position IOM at the centre of the debate surrounding migration. For more information, see Press Room.

The Donor Relations Division has the institutional responsibility for donor liaison, appeals submission and for providing guidance on reporting. The Division aims to strengthen and diversify IOM’s collaboration with donors and partners on IOM programmes and new strategic initiatives. It provides guidance, tools and funding analysis to identify donor priorities and trends and match them with ongoing and future IOM programmes. It uses a range of complementary approaches, including bilateral consultations with traditional and non-traditional donors and the private sector, field-based assessments and briefings for representatives of the international community, development of resource mobilization strategies and coordination of IOM inputs to multilateral funding mechanisms. The Division is also responsible for the production and publication of IOM’s annual appeal document, Migration Initiatives, as well as the Partnerships in Action photo books. For more information, see Donor Relations and Resource Mobilisation.

The Migration Policy Research Division is responsible for supporting IOM’s worldwide efforts in developing and conducting policy-oriented and operational research, as well as implementing its own research projects in order to inform programme delivery and policy development. It promotes deeper and more nuanced understanding of international migration within and outside IOM, and is responsible for preparing the World Migration Report. The Division is also responsible for developing and coordinating the Organization’s overall research and publishing standards and the production of around 200 IOM publications annually, including on specific migration topics, migration law, and country migration profiles. For more information, see Migration Research.

The Multilateral Processes Division is the organisation’s nodal point for developing and articulating IOM’s positions and policies for key multilateral processes related to international migration policy and overall liaison with the United Nations system, including the UN Network on Migration providing guidance to IOM staff in their work with regard to coordination processes and document preparation, including in the United Nations country teams.

The Division develops and articulates IOM’s positions and policies on international migration governance and policy, including taking the lead on IOM’s work related to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, representing IOM or providing guidance to those representing the Organization at key multilateral processes dealing with these issues. The Division is also responsible for developing and maintaining the relationship with other migration-relevant platforms, such as the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), the Mayors’ Mechanism (MM), which IOM co-steers with United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and the Mayors Migration Council (MMC), as well as other partnerships that ensue from the GFMD and the MM, such as the recently established Ad Hoc Working Group on Public Narratives on Migration. MPD is supporting country offices with the use of the Migration Governance Indicators (MGI), a tool that helps governments strengthen the way they govern migration through an analysis of the comprehensiveness of their migration policies, which identifies areas that may need to be further developed. The Division maintains an online portal that provides the latest information on IOM’s engagement in multilateral processes and access to guidance notes. For more information, see Multilateral Processes Division (MPD)

The International Migration Law Unit is the institutional focal point for promoting awareness and understanding of international migration law. A key objective of the Unit is to encourage the dissemination and understanding both within IOM and among IOM counterparts of the international legal standards that govern migration and protect the rights of individuals involved in migration, and thus to promote migration governance that is more effective and consistent with the rule of law. The Unit assists governments in developing and implementing migration legislation and procedures consistent with applicable international and regional standards. The Unit also represents IOM in relation to the International Steering Committee for the Campaign for Ratification of the Migrants Rights Convention and cooperates with the United Nations treaty monitoring bodies, among others. For more information, see International Migration Law.

Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC) established in Berlin in September 2015 at the invitation of the Government of Germany, the International Organization for Migration’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC) was set up as part of IOM’s wider response to calls for better international migration data and analysis. GMDAC works to improve migration data to inform timely and well-informed policies, programming and communications towards safe and orderly migration for the benefit of all.

IOM’s GMDAC partners with a variety of agencies and organizations in its work, including but not limited to the European Commission’s KCMD, UN DESA, World Bank, UNICEF, McKinsey & Company, the Economist Intelligence Unit, and OECD. Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC).

June 2020